There are over 1.3 billion websites on the internet and ensuring that people find yours is a very tough task. To be on the first page of the search results in search engines like Google and Yahoo, you need the digital marketing strategy widely recognized as SEO. For online marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a must-have tool. 2.2 million searches are made in Google every day; the searches in other search engines are not yet counted in that survey. Thus, being on the top rankings can be a crucial determinant in the success of your website.
You need to understand it, and more importantly, you need to need to do it. What’s troublesome for most business owners is the answer to the question: where do I start? No wonder why the term “SEO” is searched a million of times each month. Most marketers don’t have the time and skill to acquire a perfect understanding of the fundamental factors of SEO, such as keyword densities, backlinks, Trust-rank, neighborhoods, and link architecture. Getting top rankings in search engines won’t be possible unless you follow the proper SEO Process. Following the right process is where many industries fail. So, what is the right process when conducting SEO?
The SEO Checklist
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Develop and research keywords
This is the part where you think deeply about how people will find. Be in the shoes of your audience. Think about the keywords they will use when they type in the search bar for stuff related to your website. Here’s what you can do. If there is a word you think searchers might type into search engines looking particularly for you, go ahead and type it into Google yourself and see if your website comes up. For your keyword analysis, you could also review competing lists and other related industry sources. Make use of your preliminary list to learn a suggestive number of recent search engine results. You also need to know how many websites are competing for each keyword. Further, part of your priority is the plural or singular form and misspells of the keyword phrases.
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Optimize your content
First, you need to optimize your title tags(the title of a page.) They are placed in the very top of your browser and most people think they are not important, but they are actually essential for SEO. To simply handle title tags, include one keyword and a few detailed phrases. Keyword-based titles help build the page’s point.
Second, you need to optimize your file names. Search engines give close attention to the file names of your pages and images. You need to distinguish a theme or focus for each particular page to make this effective. Take note that the shorter the name, the better. It will be hard to remember for your audience if the file’s name is too long. Keep it brief and concise.
Lastly, you need to put strategic keywords on pages. Yet, you shouldn’t take too far. Google might be lured to that, but not your visitors. The best place to add keywords are mostly headers and sub-headers, and you can add a few more relevant words in the rest of your copy. Also, always remember to use different varieties of long-tail keywords in your content. That will help people search for what you are posting but do not use the exact focus keyword and phrases.
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Add your Meta tags
This step is not as important for getting high rankings because meta tags don’t carry much authority with search engines anymore. They won’t help you have high rankings. Still, they are good to hold. That’s because they can impact your traffic, too, especially if you create a compelling meta description. A meta description is a tag in HTML that sums up a page’s content. It should be made for searchers, not search engines because it’s your very first connection with potential visitors. It is small but it should be all about the reader because its main purpose is to convince people to visit your site. The maximum characters for meta descriptions are 150 or so, thus you need to craft a compact piece that will attract people.
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Test and measure continuously
Continuing addition and adjustment of keywords and website content are vital to constantly enhance search engine rankings so the growth of your website doesn’t stop. Maintaining reviews of your link strategy and ensuring that your inbound and outbound links are relevant to your business is essential. You would also want to examine search engine rankings and web traffic to know if the programs you’ve implemented are effective. Also, include assessment of individual keyword performance. Keep track of these results to monitor the growth of your business.
In summary
SEO is done so that search engines love your website, resulting in searchers possible to be prominent visitors. Yes, it works! To perform SEO, you need a notable amount of time, money, and energy to it. It’s up to you if you are patient and you commit to the process. This process is ongoing, and the steps that we recently discussed are done in a cycle. It’s a pattern you’ll eventually get used to, helping you be more attached to your website.
